Praise is a debt we owe unto the virtue of others, and due unto our own from all whom malice hath not made mutes, or envy struck dumb.

He is like to be mistaken who makes choice of a covetous man for a friend, or relieth upon the reed of narrow and poltroon friendship. Pitiful things are only to be found in the cottages of such breasts; but bright thoughts, clear deeds, constancy, fidelity, bounty and generous honesty are the gems of noble minds, wherein (to derogate from none) the true, heroic English gentleman hath no peer.

(Death is) A leap into the dark.

Gardens were before gardeners, and but some hours after the earth.

Age doth not rectify, but incurvate our natures, turning bad dispositions into worser habits.

A diamond, which is the hardest of stones, not yielding unto steel, emery or any other thing, is yet made soft by the blood of a goat.

There are no grotesques in nature; not anything framed to fill up empty cantons, and unnecessary spaces.